Can Web-Based 3D Content Help “the Metaverse” Reach Its Full Potential?
The long-gone days of extremely popular browser-based video game websites like Newgrounds and Miniclip, as well as fully fledged MMORPGs like Runescape, has raised an intriguing question: why isn’t web-based interactive content more popular today? Despite many technological advances and the widespread use of internet browsers, it seems that interactive content on the web has failed to capture the same level of interest as it did in the past.
With all the metaverse hype finally settling down, it is worth exploring whether web-based 3D content will become the standard for the virtual realm, given that the metaverse is often described as the evolution of the internet in 3D. To imagine this future, we must first understand some key technologies in the recent history of web-based interactive content, such as Flash for video and animation and WebGL for 3D graphics.
Flash was a multimedia platform that was once widely used to create animations and video games, unlocking an era of interactive content for the web (Newgrounds, Miniclip, Neopets, Habbo Hotel, Club Penguin, and many more).
The platform was widely used in the 2000s, but its popularity declined as a result of the rise of alternative technologies, social media, app stores, console gaming and the mobile era, which, when combined with Steve Jobs’ 2010 announcement that Flash would no longer run on iPhones, began the platform’s downward spiral toward discontinuity.
As synthesized in Flash’s EOL (End of Life): “Open standards such as HTML5, WebGL, and WebAssembly have continually matured over the years and serve as viable alternatives for Flash content. Also, major browser vendors are integrating these open standards into their browsers and deprecating most other plug-ins”. Flash’s downfall left a gap in tools and platforms available for easily creating web-based interactive content, leaving creators struggling to adapt to the new era: Enter WebGL.
WebGL, on the other hand, was released in 2011 (somewhat coincidentally with Flash’s demise), and it has powered a wide range of web applications, including video games, 3D visualizations, and scientific simulations, with popular examples including Google Earth, Sketchfab, Figma, Spatial, PlayCanvas, Mozilla Hubs, and Decentraland.
In simple terms, WebGL enables developers to create 3D content for web browsers, and its popularity has steadily grown over time, with many great applications already available. Despite this, it still hasn’t reached the cultural heights of the Flash era, but its relation to the metaverse may be the key to catalysing its popularity.
This relation is described in a popular browser-based vision for the metaverse (such as Matthew Ball’s) as “an embodied, or virtual or 3D version of the internet and on a nearly unending basis”. According to this definition, keywords such as 3D, browser-based, and internet become intertwined to form “the metaverse”. With these components already available, why aren’t we living in the virtual world?
One of the reasons is complexity. It is frequently more difficult to achieve the same results with web-based 3D content as it is with native applications. This makes it more difficult for developers, creators, and, ultimately, users to create engaging and immersive experiences. Flash used to be simple to use and consume, which is why it became so popular.
Furthermore, web-based 3D content’s performance is not as smooth as that of native applications, which has a significant impact on the user experience. Content needs to be optimized for buttery smooth performance in a web browser (and on any device), which currently requires even more technical expertise.
Another issue is that web-based 3D content can occasionally experience network or latency issues, which can deter users who expect fast loading times and nearly instant feedback like that of native applications, damaging the smooth user experience apps offer today.
Finally, the most difficult challenge for web-based 3D content may be discovery. Today, the majority of content is found in walled gardens like marketplaces and app stores, making it difficult for creators to gain exposure if they are not positioned in these prime channels. While social media and aggregators can aid in virality and exposure, app stores and marketplaces remain the front-row display cases for the current model.
Despite these challenges, web-based 3D content has the potential to be a major part of the metaverse (if not, “the” metaverse). The device agnosticism of web-based technologies means that users can access 3D worlds from any device with a web browser and as web-based 3D content creation is abstracted through platforms and tools, entry barriers will fall, allowing for a spring of content creators.
The 3D medium is following the same path of ease of access, use, and creation as image and video, slowly paving the way for “the metaverse”. The ultimate question is whether it will be browser-based, walled garden based, or most likely, a mix of both.
